My 2008 All-Bay Area football team: Best, Gerhart, Thompson and Gilbert lead the way

I know, I know. Stanford and San Jose State have been done for almost a month. But I purposefully waited on the all-area team until Cal closed out its regular season Dec. 6. Which means: Yes, I probably should have gotten this posted late last week. Oh, well.

There are a few changes from my midseason all-Bay Area team, especially at quarterback, but on the whole the team is basically what it was in the middle of October.

And it was fairly easy to select once I took a liberty or two: In order to get the most deserving players on the team, I tweaked the personnel at a few positions — none of the moves unreasonable, in my mind.

Offensive Player of the Year: Cal TB Jahvid Best. Gave him the edge over Stanford’s Toby Gerhart based on his performance down the stretch, which included 236 all-pupose yards and three touchdowns in Big Game and 847 yards (or whatever it was) against Washington.

Defensive Player of the Year: SJSU DT Jarron Gilbert. He had 22 tackles-for-loss and 9.5 sacks as a tackle. A first-day NFL draft pick and one of the best defensive tackles to come through the area this decade.

Freshman of the Year: Stanford DE Tom Keiser. Had six sacks despite playing part time. Reminds me a bit of ex-Cal star Ryan Riddle.

Newcomer of the Year: Cal WR Verran Tucker. JC transfer who missed the first three games and didn’t find his groove until Arizona (Oct. 18) but still finished with 20 receptions.

***Offense

QB: Cal’s Kevin Riley. The best of a substandard group. Was 7-2 as a starter and threw 14 TDs against 6 INTs. Should never have lost his starting job in the first place.RB: Cal’s Jahvid Best. A game-breaker of the first order. Averaged 8.0 yards per carry and 183.5 all-purpose yards per game.RB: Stanford’s Toby Gerhart. Nobody in the area was more valuable to his team than Gerhart was to Stanford. He punished defenses and carried the Cardinal (15 TDs, 95 ypg).WR: Cal’s Verran Tucker. Averaged 14.4 ypc and gets the edge over teammate Nyan Boateng, who had a bevy of drops early in the season.WR: SJSU’s David Richmond. Had 72 catches (31 more than anyone else in the area) for an offense that was highly flawed.TE: Cal’s Cameron JordanMorrah. Led all Bay Area pass catchers with 8 touchdowns. Imagine what his numbers could be with an elite QB.OT: Stanford’s Ben Muth. Big part of Stanford’s rugged ground game and a first-team all-league pick.OG: Cal’s Noris Malele. Played through injury the way tough-as-granite seniors are supposed to play through injury.C: Cal’s Alex Mack: If not the best center in area history, he’s in the conversation.OG: Stanford’s Alex Fletcher. Clearly one of the top-five OL but plays the same position as Mack, so I moved him. (Fletcher started every game at guard in ’07.)OT: Stanford’s Chris Marinelli. Finished at guard but played the first half of the season at tackle. Deserved a spot and I needed an OT.

*** Defense

(Note: I included four linebackers because the position was loaded and because one of the teams plays with four LBs as its base defense.)

DE: SJSU’s Carl Ihenacho. Had 18.5 tackles-for-loss despite playing the last month with a cast on his thumb.DE: Stanford’s Erik Lorig. Cardinal was so deep on the DL, it was tough for anyone to stand out. But Lorig was probably the best of the bunch.DT: SJSU’s Jarron Gilbert. Spent as much time in the backfield as opposing quarterbacks. Unblockable in one-on-one situations.DT: Cal’s Tyson Alualu. Flush with deserving ends and needing a tackle, I moved Alualu. (Also considered: Cal’s Cameron Jordan.)LB: Cal’s Zack Follett. Took advantage of Cal’s 3-4 to become an edge-rusher extraordinaire (19 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks). A close second to Gilbert for defensive POY.LB: SJSU’s Justin Cole. 240 pounds of havoc.LB: Stanford’s Pat Maynor. Was Stanford’s defensive MVP, and I’m not sure anyone was close.LB: Cal’s Worrell Williams. After an underachieving ’07, he made an impact on the field and in the lockerroom.CB: Cal’s Syd’Quan Thompson. Dominated play from the corner, which ain’t easy.CB: SJSU’s Chris Owens. Slightly better season than CB-mate Coye Francies; they formed the area’s best tandem.S: Stanford’s Bo McNally. Solid year at the weakest defensive position.S: SJSU’s Duke Ihenacho. Even better than 5 INTs, he had 2 Pick Sixes.

*** Special Teams

P: Cal’s Bryan Anger. It only seemed like every punt went for 70 yards.PK: Stanford’s Aaron Zagory. Was 10-of-11 from inside 40, which is what you want from possessions that end in/near the red zone.KOR: SJSU’s Brandon Rutley. Thought about Best for this spot but Rutley returned twice as many kicks and only averaged 2 fewer yards.PR: Cal’s Syd’Quan Thompson. No contest.ST: Stanford’s Wopamo Osaisai. With his speed, Stanford essentially had 12 players on coverage.

Jon Wilner

Post navigation

not a big fan of using stats accrued from facing lesser competition as the integral piece of one’s argument.

I’d argue Follett for DPOY (runner up to Maulafuadga from Troy)
Anger and Schwatz were Freshman All American…but neither can make your Freshman of the Year? And both started the whole year.
Cameron Jordon at DE
Schwartz at OT

And I assume you mean Cameron Morrah, not Cameron Jordan at TE.

You have a soft spot for SJSU…you are the only one who would give a nonBCS wack team (who isn’t very good mind you) equivalence to BCS Pac-10 teams. They don’t even deserve it! Cal’s 3rd string green QB starts for SJSU and he’s Jesus in Cleats! I love the 13-10 victory over FCS UC Davis…

Matt “Mt.” Hamilton

Get off your high horse, Carp. There are plenty of good players at Cal, Stanford and San Jose State. I suppose because former Spartan Dwight Lowery didn’t play in your vaunted BCS Conference, you would have said the same thing about him last year. But last time I looked, the Jets rookie cornerback is a lock for the NFL All-Rookie team and is among the league leaders in tackles by a rookie.

SJDavid

I second Matt’s note…Just because they are in a low conference, does not mean they are not as good of a player. And lets review. The WAC had 6 bowl eligable teams….the Pac-10???? oh yeah, only 5.

carp

I’m not saying good players don’t exist in non-BCS conferences…I just question how Wilner used stats against inferior competition as “logic.”

Lowery was great…the guy at S sounds like he made a bunch of plays too. But lets not go all nuts over stats accrued on a bad team (no bowl game) played against fluff opponents. Yes, you’re DI and you’ve had some good/great players but it’s not equivalent and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It would be so easy to go down most of the SJSU picks and ask “If so and so from Cal or sometimes stanfurd were on SJSU, what would THEIR stats look like?”

carp

Oh how I wish SJSU fans could read…

I wasn’t saying “they aren’t good players because the play in the wack.” They’ve got SOME. Wilner’s reasoning is idioitc at best. For example, an argument like this should get one’s AP cred revoked:

“KOR: SJSU’s Brandon Rutley. Thought about Best for this spot but Rutley returned twice as many kicks and only averaged 2 fewer yards.”

or this:

“CB: SJSU’s Chris Owens. Slightly better season than CB-mate Coye Francies; they formed the area’s best tandem.”

They’re probably fine players. But Best and Hagan are better and they’ve proven that against better competition. Hagan and Syd are two of the best corners in the west. You don’t have to defend SJSU’s players…they new what they were getting into when they signed on to play at Commuter St.

Your “WAC has 6 Bowl-eligible teams” comment is so ignorant I’m not even going to address it.

lesliemedford

This is primarily for SJDavid and his “six bowl-eligible” comment:

The Jeff Sagarin rankings seem to be the least flawed and most comprehensive available. I ignore the chattering classes and view the Sagarin ratings online occasionally as the football season progresses.

Stanford’s end of season Sagarin Rank: 60

Below are listed with their Sagarin Rank 15 even-more-mediocre-than-Stanford teams who are going bowling. I include a 16th team (because San Jose State almost got a bid) to highlight the inequity (or if you prefer absurdity) of the bowl selection process.

So these 15 teams get an additional month of practice, and presumably they will all be better next year because of it. And, of course, being in a bowl enhances the program’s reputation and recruiting. For instance, said the five-star recruit to the reporter: “Sure, Stanford offered me a scholarship, but Florida Atlantic played in a bowl game so, duh, no-brainer, I’m going there, hello!”

Unless you attended one of these schools there is no good reason to watch these teams play in a bowl game, and except for rooting for Notre Dame (ranked 58) to lose one more, what real interest is there in watching the 12 or 13 bowlbound teams ranked 41-59?

Stanford wasn’t worthy of a bowl game, and certainly none ranked below them (or close above them) is worthy either.

Too many bowls games, and too illogical the selection criteria!

Broncoboss

Lesile, Where’s Boise State’s ranking? 12 or 13? How about TCU’s ranking 19 or 20? If Oregon hadn’t got cheap shoted by BSU they would have probably been ranked 3 or 4.. Thanks Lesile.

Commuter State

Carp, your argument for competition is weak, especially this year. There really wasn’t any standout teams this year in the PAC10 except for USC, and the bottom feeders were actually worse than the WAC’s. Those two CB’s of yours got lit up plenty of times, Maryland and Arizona come to mind. So don’t act like they walk on water and Francies and Owens are subhuman.
But, that’s to be expected from a D-Bag Kal grad with a holier than thou attitude.

milo

So Cal ranked 27 on Sagarin. That seems around right. At least they were ahead of Michigan State, who they beat.

BG

Wilner does have a soft spot for SJSU. With that being said, Ihenacho, And Gilbert are studs that will go first round. Owens and Francis have outside shots at getting drafted.

BG

By the wayCarp,SJSU QB Kyle Reed was Cal’s third string QB a few years back and transfered. He also was a High School All American.

GBBS

Lesliemedford, your comment seems like sour grapes to me. If Stanford had one one more game, they would have been bowl eligible. Are you really suggesting that anyone with a lower Sagarin ranking than Stanford should not be bowl eligible??? Do you feel that if Stanford had one one more game that they deserved a bowl game?

And going back to your love of Stanford academics, are you really telling me that Stanford is recruiting the same athelete as Central Michigan or SJSU?

I agree with you that there are too many bowl games, but your logic seems somewhat flawed, or at the very least very Cardinal tinted.

Furdman

I would like to comment on the area teams & their head coaches: Cal had the most talented players including some top notch quality players a certain positions. Tedford coached them to a 4th place finish in their conference. Tedford’s grade: C-/D+
SJSU had exceptional talent on defense, but Tomey forgot that they needed some resemblence of an offense. The over-all talent at SJSU wasn’t all that bad. Tomey’s defense collapsed in the late going, the coaches also collapsed, and the Spartans fell to 6-6 after losing 3 of their last 4 games and finishing 5th in the WAC. Tomey’s grade: D
Stanford beat Oregon State who beat both USC & Cal. Stanford’s recruiting and over-all football program development is on the rise. Harbaugh took a bunch of smart hard working kids and coached them up to the point where they were a threat to beat any team! Harbaugh has continued to motivate his players to play hard and become over- achievers. Harbaugh’s grade: B/B+

Leftcoast

Good point! Jon’s team needs a coach and to my mind that honor should go to Jim Harbaugh.

Stanford beat expectations, played with new energy and further distanced themselves from the team they were three years ago. They were in most games this year, even the losses, something you couldn’t say last year.

Meanwhile, across the Bay the Bears did about as expected and Tedford kept the machine running but it was clearly “missing” at times. The coach struggled in his biggest games (except one!) and had no answer at QB where his indecision may have limited the Bears higher aspirations. Tomey did not have one of his better years in SJ.

So, Bay Area COY goes to the Cardinal coach!

(And somewhere out there I hear Milo, cat-like, choking on a giant Harbaugh.) 😉

GBBS

Leftcoast the problem with Harbaugh as COY is that they beat no one, except OSU which traditionally gets a weak start and gets better as the season goes on. Unlike last year, where stanfurd was seen as a gimme win and they surprised USC and Cal, there were no surprises.

The Bears did what they did with a beat up offensive line and a self-propelled quarterback controversy.

From a buzz perspective, Harbaugh wins. stanfurd actually sold out their reduced-size stadium. From the perspective of results, your team has a long way to go. When it came to must-win games in November, I believe stanfurd went loss-loss-loss.

carp

To Wilner and all SJSU homers:

Yes, you’re DI and you’ve had some good/great players but it’s not equivalent and it shouldn’t be treated as such.

SJDavid

Carp….
Stop repeating yourself…We get it. You dont like SJSU or the Wac and will never think anything is as good as your Pac-10 teams.

Harold

I can’t agree with you about bowl games, Lesliemedford. There are 60-some teams playing in bowl games this year, just about the same number of teams who make the NCAA basketball tournament. How come nobody ever complains that March Madness features a lot of medicre teams?

If the games don’t interest you, don’t watch them. But why begrudge the fans of these teams a chance to see them play one more time? If Stanford hadn’t folded in the final minute against UCLA, we’d be playing in the Poulan Weedeater Bowl or some such, and you bet I’d be watching. I’ve been to a bunch of also-ran bowl games to see Stanford over the years, including several (the Seattle Bowl, the Blockbuster Bowl, the Bluebonnet Bowl) that no longer even exist. I enjoyed every single of them. I think the team enjoyed playing. If the fans and the players are happy, isn’t that enough? Who, exactly, is injured by the New Mexico Bowl or the Armed Forces Bowl?

Going to just ANY bowl game of the current 34 is not much of a privilege/reward (particularly for Stanford), and that is what my post was about. My comments centered around the fact that I don’t think teams ranked past 40 by Sagarin deserve to go to a bowl, nor do telecasts of those bowl games spark any interest in me. I certainly will not be watching any of them.

As I plainly stated, Stanford did not deserve to go bowling. Had they won a sixth game, particularly over USC, Oregon or Cal, Stanford still would not have proved itself un-mediocre. We lost two or three games we plainly should have won : Notre Dame, UCLA, Oregon. If we had won those games, obviously our rank would have been much higher – but we didn’t and it isn’t.

My recruiting joke spoke to the fact that simply going to ANY bowl game does not help Stanford’s recruiting much, if at all. The players and coached would have welcomed ANY bowl I suppose, but the goal is to be ranked in the top 15 and to go to a bowl of consequence that DOES enhance the program’s reputation.

I think reaching 6 victories is a flawed standard for bowl eligibility/selection. Strength of schedule should factor heavily, and my list was meant to highlite the inequities of the current selection system.
“Too many bowls games, and too illogical the selection criteria!”

Yes, all my posts are Stanford-centric.

lesliemedford

Harold,
There are 119 football programs, there are 347 basketball programs. That is why the NCAA Basketball Tourney makes MUCH more sense! 18.5 percent of the programs make the tourney. 57 percent of football programs go to a bowl. ABSURD!!!

lesliemedford

Of course, Harold, I would have watched on TV or gone to a bowl game in which Stanford played, and I would have rooted hard!

And here is the relevant sentence from post #6:

“Unless you attended one of these schools there is no good reason to watch these teams play in a bowl game, and except for rooting for Notre Dame (ranked 58) to lose one more, what real interest is there in watching the 12 or 13 bowlbound teams ranked 41-59?”

I never said “injury” resulted from the absurdity I complain about, and according to Sagarin Stanford is more worhty that 15 teams invited to bowls. Still I remain convinced…

“Too many bowls games, and too illogical the selection criteria!”

carp

I’m glad SJDavid has seen the light. Are there others?

milo

Hey Stanfurd…is that the famous Stanfurd Flexible Curve™ you’re grading with or the Stanfurd Special Consideration Qualifier™?

As I understand it, the current President of the United States has ordered up some of both to help his ratings!

🙂

Okay and now for some pure math. Here’s how it breaks down old chums:

Tedford in 2008: 8 – 4 for a .667 winning percentage

Hairball in 2008: 5 – 7 for a .417 winning percentage

Yes Harbaugh has partly turned around a crappy program and maybe in the Stanfurd world .417 is good enough for consideration but in the rest of the world you need at least a winning record. You fellas need to lay off the excuse juice and use regular math.

Nice try however…but no cigar.

Furdman

Milo, the mark of coaching success is based on what you do with your talent level. Did you take your team further than the talent level, or did you take your team lower than the talent level. So lets take a look:

Furdman, the mark of coaching success is PARTLY based on what you do with your talent. The other part is your record. D’oh!

Sure *IF* Coach Hairball went 5-7 with 10th graders he might be COY but more likely he’d get a pat on the butt and a “nice job buddy” yell out. The reality is Stanfurd and Hairball recruited like every other team in D1.

Yes, yes, I know you and all the other Furds will go on about Stanfurd’s super selective admissions policy but you know what…as a private university that’s self determined. Furd has just as many scholarships to give. So as a hard line “bow to no one” coach might say, “Zip it!”

Any way, I love how you interject wildly subjective numbers into the calculation. Do you work for the Leman Brothers or Madoff?

milo

Hey Furdman whaddaya think of Petersen at Boise State? Petersen does a lot with their talent but you know they play in a real POS conference and don’t really play anyone. I think Petersen would be an outstanding replacement for Hairball at Stanford after he Hairball bolts next year. He’d be perfect at Stanfurd.

Furdman

Milo, you continue to be funny & witty. It’s fun to jerk your chain because you always come back with funny & entertaining reponses. Now about Petersen at Boise: He’s a great coach because he recruits great talent, he & his staff are great coaches, and the team performs great. Greaty! Great! Great! He never takes super talent & under achieves! Super talent this year with a Freshmen QB = 12-0 just what a great coach does with good talent. Plus a convincing win at Oregon. Tedford can’t do that! Super talent at Cal + average coach =under achievers. I can only hope Petersen comes to Stanford. Stanford would have to open the wallet-maybe get Arrillaga involved.

Furdman

Milo, after reading my last post & researching Chris Petersen a little I have just one comment for you. You ought to hope like hell that someday Petersen comes to Cal to head the Golden Bear football program.

milo

Furdman — he’d never come to Stanfurd…they don’t pay enough. I heard he wants to leave however. I was just asking since I thought you were a big BSU backer. That’s Brokeback Bronco country, isn’t it? Yee Haw.

🙂

SJDavid

Carp,
I have not seen the light you talk about. I am just tired of reading the same posts from you over and over again.

Jacob Wang

Maynor deserves kudos for even being able to play in the Big Game after what happened to his grandfather after the USC game the week before. That took guts.

RSpartan

Crap, we all see the lights that spells what a butthole you are.

BayDog81

I’d like to see one of you look the 6’6″ 280 lb. Gilbert in the face (Who had 3 of his 22 TFL’s against Stanford) and tell him he doesnt deserve it. That would be pretty funny. He’s likely to be the highest defensive draft pick in the bay this year. You don’t think the NFL considers level of competition???

Besides anyone who saw the Stanford-SJSU game this year would tell you that the Spartan defense would have done quite well in the Pac-10

EAST BAY GOLDEN BEAR

Anyone who goes by the handle “Carp” has little credibility.

Sharxfan02

Carp has obviously never seen Dwight Lowery play football. The end. Let’s move on. Let him sing his Cal fight song all the way back to Berkeley.